The nation's silent mass disaster

Danielle Imbo Missing for 10 Years: 'This is Not an Anniversary'

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Richard Petrone Jr. and Danielle Imbo were last seen on Feb. 19, 2005 as they were on their way from South Philly to South Jersey four years ago when they disappeared.

"I feel like I’m standing in the middle of a snow covered field with no footprints and I can go in any direction."

But John was standing inside an office at a South Jersey car dealership where he has worked for the past five years.

"To us, this is not an anniversary," John said a few weeks before Feb. 19 – the day his 34-year-old sister, Danielle Imbo, went missing 10 years ago.

To us, this is not an anniversary. This is a surreal recurrence we go through every day.John Ottobre, brother of missing South Jersey woman Danielle Imbo

"This is a surreal recurrence we go through every day."

Just before midnight on Feb. 19, 2005, Danielle and Richard Petrone Jr. left a South Street bar, telling friends they were heading towards her South Jersey home. That was the last time anyone saw them. Petrone's 2001 Dodge Dakota truck disappeared with them. The FBI continues to investigate the case, although they still have no strong leads and few clues to guide them.

Danielle, like her late father John "Johnny October" Ottobre, had a passion for music. The Cherry Hill High School grad wrote her own songs and performed in a rock band in her 20s and 30s, her Janis Joplin covers drawing the attention of the room. Strands of her dark bob would fall in front of her hazel eyes as she performed.

Music’s role in her life faded when her son was born, as she turned all her attention to being a mother. Already close with her family, the bond grew stronger as Danielle and John became new parents around the same time. The siblings spent Sundays together watching the Eagles. Danielle’s family described her as optimistic, saying she was excited about her future and raising her son.

"After her son was born, I remember she told my wife, I think the exact words were," John recalled, "'Now I know what it is like to truly be in love with someone.'"

He tells his own kids, 11-year-old twin boys: "Aunt Danielle is in heaven. She is an angel. She is looking down on us."

Her disappearance -- like Danielle’s son, the twins were nearly 2 at the time -- was likely clear to them by their 4th birthday, John said.

"Everybody is on my front lawn, cameras are coming in the house," he explained. "You see it on TV and read about it in newspapers. … There was always media at the house or I was always on the phone coordinating some type of search."

But his involvement led to other ordeals.

"My one son had a very difficult time with this," he said. "He started to get separation anxiety that this would happen to me and my wife. My wife couldn’t get out of the car. By the time, she opened the door and got to the back door, he was in a full-blown panic attack."

"I had to stop," he continued. "You have to. It’ll make you crazy if you don’t."

"You have to make a decision: is it going to consume your life?"

But trying to move on with life after your sister disappears comes with its own guilt.

"If the roles were reversed what would she do? That’s what gives me the motivation and drive to never give up," John said. "She would never give in."

He says the burden and internal battle he experiences is nothing compared to that of his mom or Richard’s parents.

"That’s my mother’s daughter. That’s Mr. and Mrs. Petrone’s son," he said. "I put myself in my mother’s shoes and it makes me sick to think one of my children went missing with no answers. I literally have to stop myself from thinking about it. It makes me sick."

"I believe Mr. and Mrs. Petrone, and my mother are literally the strongest people to push forward after this."

Like the Petrone family, John says he wants justice and implores anyone with information on their disappearance to come forward.

Am I afraid to know the truth and details of it? Yeah. I want to know, but I don't want to know. John Ottobre, brother of missing South Jersey woman Danielle Imbo

Though both families have concluded Danielle and Richard are dead, finding out how and why they disappeared would provide a much-needed resolution to a decade of torment.

"Am I afraid to know the truth and details of it? Yeah. I want to know, but I don’t want to know," he explained.

A proper burial and service would also relieve some of the agony, he said.

“Closure is a funny word,” he said. “We know she is not coming home, so isn’t that closure enough?”

“I just want to be able to bring her home and say goodbye the right way.”